Etymology of the Belgian tribes

 

Eetymology of the word Nervius (plural: Nervii) and Treverus (Treveri):

*Ner + *wie, *wier. Ner is in modern Dutch (Flemish) ‘neer’ or ‘neder’ = nether, lower, down. Wier, wie or weeg means 'woven panel, wall, house' and corresponds with 'wattle' [1]. The word is derived from ‘to weave’ and refers to an old building fashion. Houses were half-timbered and walls were made with the wattle-and-daub method. Many place-names in the Alsace (in the east of modern France) end with ‘-wihr’, the German way of writing (e.g. Riquewihr = ‘rich’ village). Wie in Nerwie corresponds with Viromandwi [2]. So wier means house and by extension: hamlet. The word ‘Nervia’ means therefore: land of the lower villages. Compare with ‘the Netherlands’.

The meaning of the word Treveri is similar. *Tree + *wier. Tree is a word that survives in modern English: “a perennial plant having a trunk, bole or woody stem”. So: Treveria meant: land of the forest villages. Their alleged capital was the modern city of Trier in Germany. This place was actually a civitas, which was most probably founded just outside the traditional realm of the Treverians, again for political reasons. The Treverians are known to be the ancestors of the modern people of Luxemburg. Luxemburg is still a land of forests. The original land of the Treveri was bigger: It stretched way into modern Belgium and once comprised most of the east part of the modern Ardennes. The modern name Luxemburg (Letzeburg in the local tongue) means: 'Last Brugh'. From the point of view of the Germans, beyond the 'last burgh' (castle) began France.

All people south of the red line spoke para-Brythonic (Gaulish). The exact position of this language border is uncertain. Note that the coastline was different in these days.

 

Morini: The tribe's name Morini is derived from the PIE word *mori and either meant "sea" or "lake". The word occurs in most Proto-Indo-European languages either as *mori or *mari. (Compare: Armorica). The proto-Flemish word for "polder " is moer (plural: moeren). The modern French part of the region is called Les Moëres. The name Morini probably refers to salty marshes and not to the sea itself. The "-in" in Morini is a Germanic plural (today written '-en' like in children). Zosimus (5th century) described their city 'Bononia' (today: Boulogne-sur-Mer) as Germanic.

Menapii: *Meen + *ape. Du.: meen / Eng.: mean / Fr.: mesnil. Meen = main house, large, common house in a village where people gathered, justice was spoken, decisions proposed, discussed and voted. In fact, a meen is a commune. All of ancient Belgium was organized in such a way, from the region of Aachen up to Normandy. Each commune had some liberty to adhere to a tribe. The degree of dependence determined whether it was an effective part of that tribe and the influence it enjoyed within the tribe council. On the outskirts of the tribal territory were the most independent meens. In order to assure some protection in case of war, the representatives of these very independent meens promised to send soldiers to the neighbouring tribe. These troops were considered to be auxiliary troops, which had to obey the commanders of the main tribe. They were 'apes'. Ape = follower, low ranking farmer, tenant farmer, imitator, auxiliary soldier. 'Ape' is a genuine German substrate word, which later, because of imitator -> the animal. The name is generic and not specific. It simply refers to a (Celtic) social organization [3]. This could mean that Belgian population slightly south of the Rhine (in the north), mentioned by Strabo and Ptolemy, had a similar social system and could all be called Meen-apes also. In theory, there could be Menapii everywhere. Caesar described them as Germanic. He had great trouble in subduing them. With good reason: in theory, he had to conquer village after village as each commune could decide independently whether to surrender or not. So, depite popular belief, the Menapii were not a tribe in the classic sense of the word. They were more a collection of villages.

Eburoni: *Eibe + *boer. 'Eibe' means yew. It's the same word as if in French and ijf in Dutch. 'Boer' = farmer. Eburon = plural of Ebur or eibboer. During the late Roman Empire the region was called Taxandria from Latin: taxus = yew (also written as Toxandria). Yew grows reasonably well upon sandy soils. Most of the western part of the territory of the Eburoni is sandy. As the local farmers were poor, they supplemented their income by growing yew. Yew was and is the main sort of wood to make bows. The famous English longbow was made of yew. Yew which grows slowly upon colder, sandy soils is of prime quality, because of the greater fiber density. Yew from Taxandria was famous in Gaul. Although the Gauls had their own yew, the Eburonian yew had a special para-Brythonic (Gaulish) name: eburo. The Eburoni called themselves Tunger (Tungri) = "who speak our tongue". According to Caesar: Germanic. They inflicted the greatest military defeat to Caesar during his campaign in 'Gaul'. One and a half legion was slaughtered, or some 7500 men. As a measure of revenge, Caesar officially genocided, wiped out, the complete tribe. But a complete genocide was never performed. Caesar admitted that other genocides such as against the Menapii failed. Later, the Eburoni re-emerged as Tungri in the official Roman nomenclature, to honour 'divine' Caesar.

Aduatuci : probably At + water+ village, 'at-wat(er)-wick'[4]. "people who live next to the water (= valleys of Sambre and Meuse)". According to Caesar: Germanic. They were expected at the battle of the Sabis (Selle), but came too late.

Condrusi : "high valley people" from *kom (Dutch for bowl), compare with *comb (U-shaped valley) in Britain. The second part is probably 'to rise', 'rose'. 'Comb' +'rose' = 'Condruse' with alteration of 'b' into 'd'. The region still exists and is called 'Condroz'. They lived upon higher ground bordering the Sambre and Meuse, close to the 'deep-valley' dwellers, the Aduatuci.

Atrebates : *bat probably means house [5]. The word is related to the ancient meaning of 'bath' and 'to bathe' = keeping warm. "Atre" was interpreted as 'Celtic' for 'black', ('ater' : Latin = black) although this is unlikely. An other possibility is 'hearth' in German plural 'hearther' so : 'hearther+bath' = "the houses with the chimneys, hearths". The region is rich in limestone and this material could have been used to build hearths, in contrast to the region slightly to the north, where no natural stone worthy the name is found. The tribe was most probably also mostly Germanic speaking although there is virtually no indication for it. But the strange story of Commius, an Atrebate trustee of Caesar, can contain a clue. He accompanied Caesar into Britain where apparently he worked as a translator. This is at least strange as Britain is officially supposed to be a 'Celtic' speaking region. Caesar had already conquered most of Gaul so he must have had sufficient interpreters already. Why was Commius needed in Britain? I think that (east) Britain spoke a Germanic language dialect and that Caesar indeed needed a trustworthy person who understood this (Germanic) language.

Viromandui : probably 'were' + 'man' + 'wier'. 'Were' like in werewolf = man-like, strong (compare Latin : vir). 'Man' = humans, people. 'Wier', 'weeg' = panel, wattle, wall, house, village (from to weave) . The 'd' is inserted to facilitate pronounciation. So: "man-like people houses" or "Belligerent country". Fought together with the Nervians against Caesar in the battle of the Sabis.

Remi, Suessiones, Bellovaci, Ambiani, Belgian-Gaulish tribes: etymology unknown. We have very little direct evidence of the para-Brythonic (Gaulish) language. Remark that the name (not the language) of some of them such as the 'Suessiones' could be of Germanic origin. Place-name studies have revealed that the language border during the early Bronze Age must have been much closer to the Seine, especially the lower Seine. Over 4000 years the language border moved to the north. A para-Brythonic language (Gaulish) gradually replaced the original Ligurian language. See next.